Controlling the subconcious mind
The subconcious is the like the cellar of the mind. It contains many past thoughts. It needs to be cleared in order for the concious mind to be control. Uncleared, it acts as an opposing force, seeking to re-manifest the past thoughts.
To clear the barriers in one’s subconcious, one has to think Holy thoughts continuous. So as to clear out or perhaps re-program the subconcious.
Beware a trick of the Mind
“It is foolishness to worry about the future while allowing the devil to conquer the present.”
The challenges of spiritual life is very simple: to be good, truly moral and master of ourselves for only this moment. What time is there outside this moment, that we should worry about it?
The simplest and surest method of controlling the mind
Love God. But if you do not believe in God, than believe in yourself.
Summary
Mind-control has always, been a difficult task even for a heroic person; but it is not an impossible one. There are well-defined methods.
The entire secret of controlling the mind is given by Sri Krsna in the two words abhydsa and vairagya, practice and dispassion.
To bring these two disciplines into the stream of our life: we have to develop a strong will to control the mind; we have to understand the nature of our mind; we have to learn certain techniques and practise them.
In order to strengthen the will, we need to overcome our pleasure-motive and’also understand what is involved in controlling the mind.
The nature of the mind is explained from the Hindu point of view in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.
To be able to control our mind we must know how not to make our task unnecessarily difficult.
Mind-control is the personal task of the person concerned. The object of mind-control is the realization of our absolute oneness with the Divine. For this no price can be too great to pay.
“To be able to practise effectively the disciplines leading to mind-control we need a favourable inner climate. This includes the capacity to accept certain features of life as inevitable.
For controlling the mind we need two sets of inner disciplines: one to give a healthy general direction to the mind, and the other to save us in emergencies.”
“The purer the mind, the easier it is to control. So we should practise disciplines for the purification of the mind. Our object should be to bring about a preponderance of sattw in our inner nature, and then to transcend sattva by purifying it according * to authentic disciplines.”
“The easiest method of doing tins, however, is cultivating holy company.
The Vedantic disciplines can be helpfully supplemented by the Yoga disciplines taught by Patanjali.
Along with the practice of the disciplines of Yoga should go the practice of discrimination. Then we shall be able to train the mind to behave. When it has been trained to behave, the senses will have been trained not to come in contact with their objects, but to obey the mind. Then pratydhara will have been achieved.
Certain ancillary measures which greatly help the effective practice of the main disciplines should be given attention. These measures are: keeping our human relationships in order; giving the mind a healthy occupation; making right use of the imagination; and guarding against despondency.
Mind-control is greatly helped by the practice of meditation, and meditation by mind-control.
In explosive inner situations to apply highpower emergency brakes, Patafijalfs teaching is: practise thinking contrary thoughts. Ceaseless chanting of the Lords name and also taking refuge in God help.”
“Methodical control of thought is a great secret in controlling the mind.
Without controlling the subconscious, the mind cannot be controlled. The subconscious can be controlled by pouring holy thought into it, as it were, and by the practice of Prdnaydma and other disciplines, among which is bhaktL These rouse the kundalinl, the latent spiritual power in a person.
We must beware of a harmful kind of imagination. By being truly moral only for this moment, and then at the next moment for the next moment, and so on always we can guard against such a possibility.
Believers are at an advantage in controlling the mind.
The simplest and surest method of controlling the mind is through love of God.
Those who do not believe in God can control the mind by transcending the gunas through self-effort.
Mind-control is valuable because it leads to the highest blessing —the illumined state of being,”